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Yesterday saw the end of the week-long period during which those wishing to stand for election as Representative at the end of the month could announce that they would be doing so.

In each of the ten Towns of Austenasia, the incumbent Representative or Acting Representative was the only person who announced that they would be standing.

This scenario was not unexpected. On Twitter, Emperor Jonathan I wrote that the nation-wide lack of competition for the office of Representative showed “local elections every five years makes far more sense than every two years”, referring to one of the constitutional amendments that will also be voted on at the end of the month.

As only a single candidate is standing in each Town, voters will have the option to cast an Abstain vote under the terms of an Imperial Edict passed in 2013. Should there be more votes to abstain than for the candidate in any Town, a new vote will be called for that Town in which more people will be encouraged to stand.

Alexander Eastwood, new Chancellor of the Federal Republic of St.Charlie.

This article is the first in a series of editorials from Lord Admiral Joseph Kennedy known as The Lord Admiral’s Corner, where the Prime Minister will give his thoughts and opinions on issues affecting the micronation.org community. The opinions expressed in this series are the personal views of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Austenasian Times or the Austenasian Government.

In the wake of the reforms to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of St. Charlie, a document which I studied in depth during my time as a student in the College of Law at the University of St. Charlie, two editorials have been published by the Occidental Chronicle and the Siroccan Times, respectively. The first covered the problems in the view of the newly inaugurated Chancellor that St. Charlie was established “by Italians and with Italian traditions.” The author, King Adam of Uberstadt (known to many Austenasians as Sir Adam von Friedeck, KVJ KCA), described my views on that situation perfectly. Admittedly, I had some problems with certain points raised in the second editorial, especially the statement that “St. Charlie is not [Eastwood’s] nation.” The notion that a nation, especially a republic, is owned by the man who founded it is a gross misinterpretation of what being a micronationalist is to me. I considered Amager to be my nation, same with Ashukovo and now with Austenasia. Nations such as Austenasia and St. Charlie (and the now-defunct Amager and Ashukovo) aren’t meant to be “his nation.” They’re meant to be like communities, our nations. St. Charlie is Eastwood’s nation, as it was Reinhardt’s, Gallo della Loggia’s, Alvisi’s and Cassidy’s. Eastwood has somehow managed to maintain the confidence of his people for three years now, so to imply that he isn’t an integral St. Charlian because he hasn’t been there as long as Alexander Reinhardt is damn near foolish. I can, however, agree with the view that Eastwood is unrepentantly trampling on St. Charlie’s heritage.

I can relate to Eastwood in many ways. Eastwood and I have both risen from relative obscurity to become the heads of government of two titans in the micronation.org community. When I departed from the MicroWikia community in January 2013 to establish the Federal Republic of Montania, the last thought I – no, anyone – had was that I would one day be the Prime Minister of the Empire of Austenasia. The same can be said of Eastwood when he established the Republic of Atlantis back in 2010. The present situation in St. Charlie reminds me of the last months of the Ashukov Federation in late 2014, when I was serving my second and last term as Prime Minister of the Federation. I was very ambitious; indeed, the Council of Ministers regularly produced posters with slogans such as “this is only the beginning” and “this is our month.” But, as the other members of the government were beginning to focus more on personal life and education, government activity began to stagnate. In a very short period of time, government activity had come to a halt.

This, my friends, is where the similarities between myself and Eastwood end.

I saw that the crippling inactivity was irreparable, and so I resigned as Prime Minister of the Ashukov Federation only halfway through my term. I signed a decree as Governor of Montania transferring what was then known as the City of Saint Josephsburg to the then Dominion of New Richmond. In effect, I had then made the transition from full-time Ashukov to full-time Austenasian.

After my departure from the Ashukov Federation, the remaining prominent Ashukovs decided, rather foolishly, to attempt to save the sinking ship by enacting massive reforms (sound familiar?). Thus, the Ashukov Federation became the Tsardom of Ashukovo, with Emmanuel Tsompanoglou, a man with very little background in Ashukov government (again, sound familiar?), as Tsar, with the powers of head of government and state (see the above). Within months, Ashukovo was dead in the water. The same is happening with the Federal Republic of St. Charlie; the Captain has died, and his underling is foolishly attempting to keep the ship from sinking.

Alexander Eastwood is Mikhail Gorbachev, and these reforms to the St. Charlian constitutional system are his glasnost and perestroika.

A copy of the Imperial Decree passed yesterday which ordered the referendum and election for August 31st.

His Imperial Majesty the Emperor yesterday promulgated an Imperial Decree which ordered a referendum to take place on 31 August in which all Austenasian subjects will be able to vote on proposed amendments to the Constitution.

Local elections will also take place on 31 August, in which each Town will choose who to serve as its Representative in Parliament.

Several of the proposed amendments are little more than corrections to mistakes in the spelling and grammar of the Constitution, which was adopted in September 2011. The main amendments which have been proposed are:

Local elections shall take place at least once every five years instead of at least once every two years.

Local elections will be able to take place in Towns individually. At present, all Towns have their local election at the same time.

The structure of the judicial system will be able to be reorganised by Parliament (it currently being entrenched by the Constitution).

Parliament will be able to make provision for whom the Throne should pass to should the Line of Succession come to an end.

The Monarch will be able to temporarily suspend the Constitution should there be an emergency so severe (an “existential threat to the state”) that normal government becomes completely impossible.

Subjects will have the option to vote Yes, No, or Abstain to the proposed changes.

Should over half of all Austenasian subjects vote Yes, then an Act of Parliament will be proposed to put the amendments into effect, which will require the support of over 80% of Representatives to pass.

The three imperials had spent the week at Sidhome Hotel in the town of Sidmouth, relaxing at the hotel as well as going out for day trips.

Activities by the three holidaymakers included a visit to a pottery studio where they made their own pots, exploring the picturesque village of Branscombe, building a “sea wall” on Sidmouth beach, and looking through various gift shops.

Emperor Father Terry was unable to come on the holiday due to the Imperial Family’s pet bullmastiff Edd requiring somebody to look after him, but had spent a week away with a friend earlier in the month to make up for missing out.

An album of photographs taken of the holiday by the Emperor can be seen at this link.